Wood Shrimp Question

[MXgirl]

Hello all, once again. The question this time is on a sad note
One of my wood shrimps died. I had a bad feeling from the start with this one. It always had a yellowish tinge to it's coloring and never seemed very healthy. But this leaves only one now, and because I never felt completely comfortable in my capabilities of keeping them or if they were getting fed properly, I don't want to get another. I think I'll stick to the algae eating shrimp. So it has come down to either returning him to the pet shop, or keeping him with amano shrimp. I know that the algae eating shrimp are very social and need to be kept in groups. Is this true of the wood shrimp? Should I return him in hopes that he will find a better home and more company or keep him single? Thanks! Any opinions greatly appreciated. This whole situation really bums me out.

[Mustafa]

Keep the shrimp. Filter feeding shrimp do just fine by themselves, too.

Mustafa

[Ljung]

agree to Mustafa.... keep the shrimp

i used to have two woodshrimps, but one was crushed to death during adjusting some of my deco....
so now only left one.... well, it just mind its own business, and never harass anybody.
woodshrimp is fine even alone of its kind, a peaceful shrimp that help himself on the filtering job.
just provide constant water current to make this shrimp happy

[abc]

I'm new to the woodshrimp care myself, but I would keep the shrimp and just keep up with the water changes/parameters. Also, when you do the water changes, do you try to match the temp of the new water with the old? A sudden temp change could stress the wood shrimp. I'm taking it for granted your tank is nitrate/nitrite free. Is there anything in the tank that can stress your woodshrimp? fish? If your water levels are fine, and you have no fish in your tank, it might just be your shrimp have not recovered from the transit to the lfs. I always try to pick the darker/red tone ones for the healthy picks.

Best of luck, abc

[Ljung]

i dont have much experience on what kind of fish will stress the woodshrimps as the fish in my tank are those suitable for community tank. or my woodshrimp is big enough to take care of itself
IMO, if want to keep fish in a shrimp tank, try to keep the number of fishes low (to minimise those small shrimps from being nibbed by different curious fish like gupppies??), and avoid territorial or unfriendly fish.... e.g. apisto, bardi (although small size, a good fries hunter)
just my 5cent opinion....
but nomatter what, make sure lots of hiding space..... moss for small shrimps like cherry, tiger, bee, etc..... rocks, caves, woods for woodshrimps......
another 5cent opinion.....
cheers.....
happy shrimpping.....

[MXgirl]

Thanks everyone, this is good news because I'm quite attached to him. It's so hard to figure out what might've gone wrong, or if he was sickly from the start.

[MXgirl]

Putting the puzzle pieces together. I now believe I know what it was that killed my Wood Shrimp.
I bought some Kent Marine Micro-Invert food. I was misled in being told that this is good for them. I believe that it clogs the gills on the shrimp. I accidentally killed him with kindness after attempting to squirt the liquid directly into their fans using a leur-tip syringe I got from work. I thought that this was a great idea to feed them because I never felt confident that they were getting enough food. My second shrimp soon after his death, shed the carapace on either side, to my complete horror, exposing his gills. With some serious first-aid treatment, I think he might pull through as now only one side is exposed. I mean, that's gotta be it because they cringed and crawled away from it immediately almost as if it was stinging them. Then this happened. YIKES

[theshrimp_123]

wierd.